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Author
Topic: How did YOU get here? (Read 19552 times)

Today, while I was working on some projects around the house, I started thinking about HIV (imagine that!) and aidsmeds. I remembered the second day after finding my HIV results I was laying in bed playing around on the internet. I suddenly got really upset wondering how one went about living with HIV. Like I always do when I want to know something, I Googled "living with HIV". I went through several pages of results until I came to one that seemed like it might be what I was looking for - aidsmeds.com.

Although Google did ultimately get me here, I wonder if there's a way we can get moved up a bit in their search results. So, my question is 'how did you find aidsmeds.com (or the forums on poz.com)?'

I have been here since the end of April first of May and I cant remember how I found this place. I was all over the internet trying to find anything about HIV/Aids. Everything is a blurr of the first month.

But Im so glad that I did find this place. Dont know what I would have done without it and the people here!

Its kind of interesting. I found this site by a google search. I was already on medication two months prior to finding Aidsmeds back in 2003.

I wasn't so much in need of support, I had already lived with this bug, long before this site became available, and years before the internet became available !! I already had a great support base through the years.

I was searching for information on the meds. ( Ziagen) as I was being switched over to that med, from Zerit. Thats when I joined the site. It opened another door for me, and took me into another phase of living with HIV. It took me quite a while to get posting.And I was a little uncomfomtable in the beginning. I would much rather talk to people face to face, then to type messages,( I hate typing) but anyway, here I am just about three years later !! And now I am addicted !!

poznoregon

By accident! I have been familiar with poz.com for a few years and visit that site every once in awhile. One morning while there I noticed the link to forums and clicked on that which opened up a wealth of information.

I was doing a search on the internet for an HIV/AIDS support group. Somehow through my searches, POZ showed up. From there I eagerly read through the site and I had discovered the forums through a link that was provided on their site.

I WISH I had of know about AM sooner than I did! I love the family here.

I think I search using Google back in 10/2002. Been there ever since. The Lessons have a true source of information. (Thanks Tim, Peter and all the others behind the scenes.) But the Forums have been a life saver for me. They provide my sole support system. I love each and any every one of the posters for what they bring to the table. Through the Forums I have made the best friends I have in my life.

Let's all continue to be that to each other. Together we will survive and will beat this damned virus.

I had come across Aidsmeds.com a few times before I joined. At first I just didn't look because I wasn't on meds and it didn't seem to apply to me. I looked again after they linked with poz.com which I visit all the time. I was at a low point needing support with no time to actually find a support group. So I posted one night and AM was my knight in shining armor....which was beatiful. There's no site like it that I've seen. I still wonder if its title may misdirect people. It's so much more than info on meds.

Hi David. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was during Christmas holiday time last year when I got the results. Happy Holiday to me, ho ho, not. But that very night I was lucky to Google hiv treatment and landed here at AM. I read what seemed like the entire website that evening, and it took me a few days to get up the nerve to actually post. And I'm so glad I did! I didn't want to burden anyone's holidays with my diagnosis news, so a lot of people here helped through those difficult weeks when I was alone and trying to absorb and deal with it. And I will never forget it.

I found Aidsmed.com when I was searching for the PEP drugs I was on and wanted to know why I was feeling so ill and having so many side effects...I got the information I wanted and left.

When I was diagnosed in 2002 I thought I would be able to handle things on my own, but after a year of various combo's, dreadful side effects and sickness I decide to go back to Aidsmeds and seek some help and advise from the guys on the forum...and I was given much more than I ever imagined...the support was amazing, so I hung around and made some wonderful friends in the process..and that David is why I'm still here after 3.5 years... .

I had pretty much been avoiding the internet as far as doing any "research". Just trying to let things sink in a bit.

When I had my first Dr.'s appt, I asked if there were any reputable sites to look at. The nurse told me about aidsmeds.com and thebody.com. Two weeks later when I got my first lab results, I got home that night and while I was mindlessly surfing, figured I'd check it out. I couldn't find the piece of paper Mary had written the sites on, but I remembered aidsmeds.com. I typed it in and found the lab tracker. Then I looked over and saw a link that said forums. "Hmmm, I wonder what that's about???" And here I am. YAY!!!

I found this place not long after I was diagnosed in February 2001. I didn't even have my own computer back then, I was going to my ex-husband's house while he was at work to use his computer to find and print out info. I found the lessons first while trying to make sense of CD4 counts - I still have the print outs of those lessons pages dated March 2001.

I found the forums around the same time but they were very different back then. This was pre-SMF software and pre-FuseTalk software too. Back then, days could go by before there was a new post (nevermind thread!) in the Living forum; most of the activity seemed to be in the Am I Infected forum (formerly known as the Fears of HIV forum). When Peter installed the FuseTalk forum software in September of 2002, the place really exploded, especially after Peter had AIDSmeds listed in the advertising sidebar at Google around World AIDS Day 2002.

In mid 2003 the forums were under attack from denialist who wanted to clog the site up and shut us down. I started helping get rid of these guys (by incessantly emailing Peter to say - they're back!) and that was how I ended up as a moderator - although nobody knew until July of 2005 when I came out of the closet. And the rest, as they say, is herstory.

I don't know what I would have done all these years without this place and the wonderful people who populate it. I probably would have gone completely stark raving bonkers living in isolation here on the Rock.

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I put HIV/AIDS in my AOL search engine and this is one of the places that came up.I was tired of being alone with this. I just wanted to hear what other people dealing with this virus were thinking and doing.First I signed up for the newsletter and got that for years before coming to the forums.This was definitely because of drug use or I would've come here a lot sooner!!

I found this website probably a month or so after being diagnosed/infected. I was right in the middle of the process of finding a doctor, getting my labs, etc..and I was desperately looking everywhere (over the internet) for information about the latest treatment, clinical trials, potential cures, etc.. I used to file these very large black binders with all the information I gathered on clinical trials, study results, drug pipeline reports, etc.. And I would read them after work (and during work). I stumbled onto aidsmeds while researching new drugs (I think it was viread or those IL-2/7 drugs). Soon afterwards I signed up for the forums.

The black binders are long gone. But the forum is still here for me.

Great thread David!

P.S.- Re: How high up a website shows up on a search...I think it has to do with how many hits the website gets. The more popular a website, the higher up it is in the search results. But maybe a more technical person can confirm this.

I was recovering from PCP and was wondering how the hell I was going to hang on. It didn't look good. It was February, 2004. Then one day I googled and found Aidsmeds. The first log-on sign I noticed was by Alan, aka, "DO YOUR OWN DAMN DISHES"

It was the first time I had laughed in months.

If there any one or two enteupreneurs worth their new found $$$$ (billions) they are the the founders of Google. Just for Aidsmed alone, their "invention" has been priceless.

In mid 2003 the forums were under attack from denialist who wanted to clog the site up and shut us down. I started helping get rid of these guys (by incessantly emailing Peter to say - they're back!) and that was how I ended up as a moderator - although nobody knew until July of 2005 when I came out of the closet. And the rest, as they say, is herstory.

Thank you Thank you Thank you!! Denialists are the worst!!! (they contribute to death and suffering, i.e., the blind leading the blind!)

If my memory is intact, I ran a Google search last year and it took me directly into the forums. I remember thinking wow these people know alot, so I posted a question about a poz person having a baby and what would the status of the baby be ---Rasheen was the first person to answer ..... Funny how we can remember little details like that

I saw a magazine about it in our MD's office. I liked the info in the magazine, and figured that hitting this site would help me help us keep up with things as well as finding a friend(s) who are in the same "boat" so to speak.

Frankly, I don't make friends easily, and my last "best" friend (besides my wife) was a buddy I shared an apartment with in Portland, Oregon. And that was in 1979, so you can kinda see what I mean.

I knew what HIV entailed to a large extent before arriving here but the lessons and person experiences in these forums have been invaluable - and great supplements to regularly scheduled visits to the doctor.

How could we live without the internet these days? Sure, it's got it's share of warts, but what a way to connect with other people across the globe from my big, comfy chair!

I seem to recall being invited to visit this site after having a very heated and long argument with a couple of HIV denialists on another board. I really don't have much tolerance for the stupidity the denialists try to spread.

LIFE is not a race to the grave with the intention of arriving safelyin a pretty and well-preserved body, but, rather to skid in broadside,thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming--WOW! WHAT ARIDE!!!

Just for fun, Google my name, Ric Wilke, and see what you get. I guess I'm out of the AIDS closet, as they say. But look where I came out. Yes, AIDSmeds.com. Thank you Peter, Tim, Andy and Ann. Yes, I'm Poz and yes, I'm Proud.

Although I've been positive for 14 years now, I never knew about this site until 2.5 yrs ago....when I started working for an ASO here in Pittsburgh. I just did alot of research on here for a while and then finally joined the forums about a year ago.

I believe it was searching for information on viral resistance. I didn't sign up immediately, though. Probably on my 3rd visit I did and am surely happy about it. At that moment my doc put me on Fuzeon and I was full of questions about this medication and needed some feedback from persons already using it. Here I found good responces to all my questions and great personal advice sent to my personal messages section. This page is good therapy and it makes me feel we are not alone...

« Last Edit: September 11, 2006, 09:40:11 AM by Catman »

Logged

Catman

Meow to the birdsMeow to the tree'sMeow to the endof this dreadful disease...

After suffering through 3 weeks of "holiday cheer", and spending Christmas with my family out of state for two days, I'll never forget New Years Eve. Barely 4 weeks after getting my confirmed poz test, and after reading all the lessons here on AM, needless to say it was a New Years I will never forget. I wish I could remember that names of the really nice people that got me through that very depressing New Years Day here on AM, but my mind was not in such a shape to remember. I like this new software, but I regret that I don't know how to go back and see my posts from back then, because I truly would like to thank those people who got me through that...... is there any way to go back and see the old posts from before the software upgrade?

I was diagnosed 2001, have been computer literate only since 1998, but found like most with computer access the various sites for HIV+, mostly the dating sites, but of all these only found two really good sites one run by poz magazine and positiveconnections.org out of Florida both have personal sites free with no gimics and no lures too post "free ads" which turn out too be merely a lure too get you too post your personal data. I only recently discovered the forums here, sadly did not really revue the poz magazine main web page well or would have seen its obvious link too forums. I have been on medications immediately, unlike the lucky ones who went many years from date of infection too meds, I got infected in early 1999, and when diagnosed in 2001 had CD4 Level of 99 and was getting sick.., but medications have been my blessing as well as curse since they do have the nasty side effects. I just chalk it up too fate and some bad medicine side effects cannot be as bad as feeling nothing at all and being deceased...! I do wonder why so many of us are diagnosed in the USA today and so few go on line, have my opinion on this, many just may not be computer savvy due too generation they are born in as I was, or have other priorities than buying a home computer, but anyone can use a free internet and computer access from any public library, by merely getting a free library card, often wondered why more do not do so and for that reason I posted a web page on the subject in hopes of educating some on the idea of maybe spreading the idea too others like us, got a reasonable nice response from many of the 180 plus some viewers who visited the site, but did get two negative comments, got attacked by one lady who claimed I was spreading mis-information and that women cannot infect men, all HIV/AIDS was caused by gay and bi-sexual men, she went beserk on me. Of course I did not take the bait, since she obviously was just angry at all men due too her alleged source was a ex-husband with a bi-sexual background. I did wonder why she even posted on poz personals if she had such anger at men, but then she blamed me for her decision too remove her ad, I guess she just had to have someone too blame. It did not deter me from keeping the site posted and who knows out of the 180 plus folks who visited it maybe some did as I suggested and printed up some simple one page flyers and dropped them at local places where us HIV get services and medical care and maybe reached some poor soul who is not computer savvy or has no home computer..! In any event I feel two negatives out of over 180 is not bad, if anyone is curious it is at http://www.geocities.com/rvhobo1954/page1.html?I even put informational links too a web page on legal issues state by state on disclosure, since truly some states have really draconian laws and people need too be aware of them...! I was under the mistaken impression if you just disclosed you obeyed the law but some states even disclosure does not eliminate legal complications...! Take care and god bless too all..